Reflections

[isadora]

Sowing the seeds, to be able to harvest, when these seeds had grown to a full-grown product, has been the natural way for all times.
Whenever the product was and is not ripe, harvesting was, or is of no use.
Building a house, to be able to suit the needs, won't be necessary, when it is not known, what it will be suiting for.
Furnishing that house, without knowing how this furniture should comfort you, is of no use.

Three basic points that can make just the difference. And three points many of us are easily being impressed by influences from parties, who think to know, or better, who want us to believe, they know, how we should act.

These days of revolutionary changes, and not in the least in the IT-area, we more and over seem to follow what is pushed between our jaws.
We hear from friends, colleagues and friends what is the best choice.
Whatever, about cars, about the choice of energy-company, about stocks and insurances, about our spiritual life, and for sure about our choices about computers and hence operating systems, everybody can give you the best of advices.

For me, i already stopped giving people any direction since many a year. I don't have a marketing-team as strong to influence, and far more haven't a supporting-team to help them out, whenever they are so clever, to follow my advices.
Yes, i did try for some couple of years, but have learned since.
Ooooh and aaaah when showing them about all the (free) possibilities in this world. But when it came to the first things, going different and not going automagical, most of them hooked off.
And yes, i tried this many times with the best of intentions.
In the end i found out, this seed can only grow, when it has been seeded by the person her/himself.

My first employer, boss of a supermarket, told me some 30 years ago, that mankind likes to be deceived.
In that they never trust things that are given for free. Free has something to do with inferior. It doesn't give you the feeling, of having something to defend yourself for your choice. Whatever crap you buy, where you put your good money into, gives you a right to offend against. That seems something necessary to use, in case you get into some argument with the rest of your family/friends/and whoever.
This mechanism is something very well known in the commercial world, and which is equally used, to set off products of inferior qualities.

So, and now bring back all those words of (self-proclaimed) wisdom. Where should bring this you, as reader in his forum?

Since 1995 i was introduced into the digital world. Yes, my first experiences are from from the DOS-period, in my case DOS 5.1.
It was only short after, that i got hands on DOS 6, with the ability to use a revolutionary function called "DoubleSpace", astonishing.
And very short after that, the first graphical wonders of Windows 3.1.
After that, well everybody knows.
In the early 2000's Mandrake came on my way, and ever since it became my main OS for private use.
Made some switches back and forth, but found out, going back to Windows, always gave me this locked-in-feeling.

And where are we now? And how to connect back to my first phrases?
Seeding those seeds, you remember? Waiting to it is filly grown to a product ripe to harvest?

What is it, we feel to have even more and better technologies?
I tell you, it is not you. It is this crazy-driven-commercial-driven-mad-world, that makes you believe, to be ahead, far more than what really is the truth.

For me, i am very happy, what Mageia 1 is able to run my laptop. Well yeah, i am not doing that much of spectacular things. Like to read my e-mail, surf around on the web. chat with some people, editing a picture (to make myself look like some kind of bird from paradise), ....etc.
But most and foreall to be sure to have some dedicated, stable, safe and freedom-of-choice operating system, that suits my needs.
And to be honest; yes i am a KDE-addict (for the marvelous product they have put together, since the transition to version 4).
But i will never ever want to push these great volunteers to the limit, to push them or any others, to make the pleasure greater than i even can imagine.

Concluding: we/you are amongst the very happy few still, to live aware of a revolution, which most of people are not aware of.
Of course it is good to be keen, on what is happening, but don't try to force borders.
It is all about people loving to share their free input, and awaiting constructive commentary.
But also remember, that all of this wouldn't be possible without the extensive input by all of the Mageia-team, in whatever graduations.
They all do it within their own amounts of free time and free thoughts.

Respect, enjoy or help.


isadora

[firefly]

Hello,
something for everybody to ponder on, and if that happens everything would become nicer.
thank you isadora for your words of wisdom.

[marja]

Thank you, Isadora.
What strikes me most, is this sentence: "My first employer, boss of a supermarket, told me some 30 years ago, that mankind likes to be deceived.
In that they never trust things that are given for free. Free has something to do with inferior. It doesn't give you the feeling, of having something to defend yourself for your choice."
I always thought that for newbies, installing Linux and doing basic things (mail, surf, chat, play a game, print) with it, should be very easy. I'm now wondering whether I'm wrong. For me, starting to use Linux cost me quite some effort, I remember all the things that didn't work at first, and all the kernel panics I caused in Mandrake 8 without having a clue what else to do than just power off. I remember the relief, when I discovered the Alt+SysRq keys in Mandrake 9. I remember how excited I was with every improvement, with discovering things that worked better under Linux than under Windows. I remember the joy of adjusting my system in ways impossible (for me) under Windows, e.g. the fun of adding some dead keys to make typing Pinyin easy.
Still: the reason that I fell in love with Mageia is, that rc1 worked so well and 1 is very near to perfect. At first, I payed nor money, nor effort for Mageia, it is only very recently that I started to contribute.

[wobo]

Concluding: we/you are amongst the very happy few still, to live aware of a revolution, which most of people are not aware of.
Of course it is good to be keen, on what is happening, but don't try to force borders.
It is all about people loving to share their free input, and awaiting constructive commentary.
But also remember, that all of this wouldn't be possible without the extensive input by all of the Mageia-team, in whatever graduations.
They all do it within their own amounts of free time and free thoughts.

Respect, enjoy or help.

Nicely said and worth reading!

I would like to add a few words about this "Linux is for free" part.

How about friendship? It does not cost money to have true friends but is it for free? You pay in time, commitment, help, lending your ear&shoulder, same as your friend does to you. In my thinking it's the same with Linux (and all other Open Source stuff). You receive great software, the freedom to be involved and change, the freedom of choice. Doesn't this also mean a moral obligation to pay back within your individual way and limits? Coding, packaging, writing documentation, translating, supporting, advocating, etc. - there is a way for everybody to pay back, even if all you can do is testing and giving feedback or participate in discussions in the forums and/or mailing lists.

This thinking has brought me to my involvement with Linux. I'm not a coder and as somebody recently wrote it is impossible to discuss technical things with me ( ). But I can participate in support and user relations, translating and discussing. I did that before I was contacted by Mandrake - and much more since then. I have not much money, so I pay back in the way I am able to. I often read posts like, "I would help but I'm a newbie and I don't have the skills to be a good help" - this is a lame excuse, I can't think of anybody who is able to run Linux but would not be of any help at all. /me thinks that we should even increase our communication with users to make them aware of the fact that even people like me can be of help.

If you think like me, then Linux is not for free like friendship is not for free!

[isadora]

Thank you both marja and wobo for your great additions.
It is really complementary to what i wrote, and i surely second your points of view.

[marja]

@ wobo Your one-liner is great: "Linux is not for free like friendship is not for free"

[isadora]

Last night a friend called for assistance on his computer.
For me the first time after a very long period without maintaining a Redmond-born-OS.

In earlier times i had to move myself physically to the location, where the victim-machine was located.
But nowadays, with TeamViewer at hand, it is "easily" done from within my own home-sweet-home.
Installing TeamViewer with urpmi --allow-force, to get around dependency-issues, was a piece of cake.
And within the shortest time i was connected to the other machine.

Just a few questions from my friend: please give me some bigger fonts, and how can i find back my downloaded files?

So, a way of behavior from my side was first checking for the anti-virus-program. Was it still working and did it have the latest updates?
Well this latest updates were from last July, hmm. It looked like the program was ran out of it's support-period. Which meant un-installing it and install a newer version of the free program. And a first reboot was needed to make it all configured well. The first quick scan didn't bring up any issues, but when starting a full scan, six problems were found, mainly Trojans and other malware, which all were cleaned by the program. This scan took about two hours and a half of time.

Then i checked for the latest updates for a bunch of programs, like Firefox (and it's add-ons), Flash, Quicktime, Acrobat Reader (another reboot), and others. Fortunately Windows itself was up-to-date, which saved me some time.
This all made me realize once more, how easy my own machines can be maintained. If it was only for that, it already would be a good reason to switch.

His desktop was full of icons, mainly shortcuts to all kinds of files. Lots of broken shortcuts, and even more copies of the same. This cleaned up the desktop-view significant.
After this i cleaned out his "Download"-folder. A huge amount of installation-files were found, and all of them i shot to the waste-basket, which saved him some gigabytes of disk-space.

Finally i handled the questions he initially asked me for, the bigger fonts and some way to find back his downloaded files easily, by making 'another' shortcut to his "Download" folder on the desktop.

The complete operation took some four hours in all. And with an arriving headache i called my friend back, telling him my experiences.

Conclusion: another experience for me to know, that i will never ever return to that operating system.
The way the operating system is dictating how to handle, makes me feel like being a prisoner.
Yeah, Linux is freedom, and Mageia for me gives this the base, from which it all can be handled in a proper way. If it were only for the way updating the system.

[marja]

Well, maybe I should learn to do that to connect to another Mageia-pc

I maintain some pc's of other people, the one furthest away from me takes me an hour to get there. Although it might be easier for me to refer the owner of that machine to the Mageia forums. He has some funny habits, like unplugging his pc when he thinks it'll take too much time to shut off

[doktor5000]

Well, i've set up Teamviewer to support my parents, if they have some small issues or don't know how to add an attachment to a mail or something the like
(please don't laugh, if you have a certain age, you definitely get an seniority bonus) and it works like a charm, definitely don't want to miss that.
It's the easiest-to-use cross-plattform tool for novices i've encountered so far.

[marja]

Well, i've set up Teamviewer to support my parents, if they have some small issues or don't know how to add an attachment to a mail or something the like
(please don't laugh, if you have a certain age, you definitely get an seniority bonus) and it works like a charm, definitely don't want to miss that.
It's the easiest-to-use cross-plattform tool for novices i've encountered so far.

Sounds good!

And I didn't laugh... among many others I do remember this very sweet old lady, always willing to help another, being in despair because she hadn't been able to mail her children and grandchildren in three weeks. I offered to help her, and on the way there I expected to spend quite some time solving her problem. She started her laptop, Firefox started automatically in a window of 5x5 cm. So I maximized the window...... and her problem was solved! (She used webmail)

[wobo]

(please don't laugh, if you have a certain age, you definitely get an seniority bonus)

Thank you! People like me appreciate this thoughtful approach!

[doktor5000]

(please don't laugh, if you have a certain age, you definitely get an seniority bonus)

Thank you! People like me appreciate this thoughtful approach!

Uhmm, well maybe i need to add the constraint "at least my parents".
No, just kidding, was meant like that

[wobo]

Ok, you know, "silver surfers" like me (I'll become an official one next week) are very peculiar about this: You lose if you want to tell them something they know: "I'm old but not dumb!" is one of the remarks I heard often enough when I did computer training with senior people.

[doktor5000]

Well, it also has one superior advantage which i notice really often:
You can perfectly play thick-witted even if you exactly know what someone is talking about

[isadora]

Wobo, i can surf to find out about "silver surfer", and even can imagine somehow what this might mean.
But is it some kind of reason to party, like you are going to be a jubilee in one or another way?
If so, i will bring in the beer, and bock-wurst.

[doktor5000]

If so, i will bring in the beer, and bock-wurst.

Beer yes. Bockwurst - uargs

Silver surfer means a retired person or pensioner (don't know what it's called in english) which is enjoying the internet AFAIK.
In most areas here there are more silver surfers than adolescents. Nice fact, huh?

[isadora]

If so, i will bring in the beer, and bock-wurst.

Beer yes. Bockwurst - uargs

Silver surfer means a retired person or pensioner (don't know what it's called in english) which is enjoying the internet AFAIK.
In most areas here there are more silver surfers than adolescents. Nice fact, huh?

Thank you doktor5000, another day i have learned something new.
And yes, for me..........only the beer as well.

[wobo]

No beer, no bock-wurst. Champaign and caviar for celebration.

[isadora]

No beer, no bock-wurst. Champaign and caviar for celebration.

How about Federweisser and Zwiebelkuchen?

Fear this topic is getting hijacked.

[marja]

Fear this topic is getting hijacked.

I listened to a tape from

reflections audio's

, that's a project of (among others?) a woman who impressed me because of a one-liner, something like:

Don't make a to do list, make a to be list!

The tape (mp3, IIRC) was very funny, it was about what steps to take to feel miserable, it made me roll over with laughter

[isadora]

I listened to a tape from

reflections audio's

, that's a project of (among others?) a woman who impressed me because of a one-liner, something like:

Don't make a to do list, make a to be list!

The tape (mp3, IIRC) was very funny, it was about what steps to take to feel miserable, it made me roll over with laughter

Thanks for that marja, just subscribed as well, and received my mp3.
Is about the way planning is made the right way, first the big blocks, and filling the spaces afterwards with smaller gravel, and sand.

[wobo]

Is about the way planning is made the right way, first the big blocks, and filling the spaces afterwards with smaller gravel, and sand.

Learned this in school in literature classes: "How to write a story". Same way.